Digital technology and channels

MSC (MicroSave Consulting) has been at the forefront of the payments industry, working with banks, FinTechs, agent network managers (ANMs), policymakers, and regulators in the payments ecosystem. Over the past years, we started producing reports for the industry, highlighting trends in the payments space, and received an overwhelming response. As we continued our work, we asked ourselves: How can we demystify these insights for those interested in the space? How can we provide details on payment trends from a 360-degree perspective? How can we share exciting trends from this growing industry? We bring you our latest creation—Payments Instruments Rails (PIN Rails), which unveils developments in India’s ever-growing digital payment ecosystem. PIN Rails dives deep into the what, how, and why of the Indian digital payments landscape. Through this public good, we expect to share developments and trends from the changing digital payments ecosystem through a one-stop interactive dashboard.

MSC partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) across select geographies to demonstrate how cash-lite ecosystems can be promoted and fostered in rural areas. This intervention was in context of the digital revolution currently underway in India. The Government of India continues to promote accessibility and usage of digital modes of payments across India as well as a “cash-lite” economy. Over the past few years, the digital revolution has received important impetus from a range of policy reforms and innovations designed to make the Indian economy depend less on cash.

The Agent Network Accelerator (ANA) program identifies the factors responsible for the success or failure of specific agent networks across the world. Our ANA partners comprise leading providers, including M-Pesa, MTN, Orange, Vodafone, Tigo, Airtel, BKash, and EasyPaisa, as well as the Gates Foundation and UNCDF. MSC teams analyze the data and produce country reports and customized business analytics. The ANA baseline research has been completed in 14 countries, while second-wave surveys have been completed in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania, and Uganda.

MSC helped to set up a “Financial Inclusion Lab” that identifies, mentors and brings to scale early-stage FinTech startups. These startups address the issues faced by the underserved communities by developing innovative and technology-enabled solutions. So far, over 40 startups have been supported, impacting over a million customer, and 1000+MSMEs. Four major social investors fund the initiative with committed funding of USD 9.5 mn. The project demonstrates MSC’s ability to structure and implement multi-stakeholder projects, especially those involving the investors and service providers (startups), to achieve a developmental outcome.

GSMA wished to study the space of mobile money distribution networks and contracted MSC to conduct a market assessment of mobile money providers. MSC’s research exercise assessed and documented the leading new agent distribution networks. The resulting report is now one of the more popular downloads on GSMA’s website.

MSC experts conducted primary research in five states in India to develop recommendations on improving the UI of M-Pesa’s USSD platform and suggestions for improvement in platform communications. The intervention had a positive impact on Vodafone India’s customer base of 3 million users at the time.